“Good Mrs. Hypocrite.” A study in self-righteousness, is a most enjoyable novel by “Rita.” It has little of plot, and less of adventure, but is the study of a single character and a narration of her career. But she is sufficiently unique to absorb the attention, and her purely domestic experiences are quite amusing. She is the youngest daughter of a Scotch family, angular as to form and sour as to feature. She had an aggressive manner, was selfish, and from girlhood set herself against all tenderness of sentiment. Losing her parents, she tried her hand as a governess, went to her brother in Australia, returned to England and joined a sisterhood in strange garb, and her quarrelsome disposition and her habit of quoting scripture to set herself right made her presence everywhere objectionable. For this old maid was very religious and strict as to all outward forms. Finally she went to live with an invalid brother. She discharged the servant, chiefly because she was plump and fair of feature, and she replaced her with a maid as angular as herself, straight from Edinbro’. The maid was also religious and quoted scripture, and the fun of the story lies in the manner in which the woman who had had her way so long was beaten by her own weapons. -_Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer_, June 15, 1899. The Scotch character is held up in this story at its worst. All its harshness, love of money, unconscious hypocrisy, which believes in lip-service while serving but its own self, are concentrated in the figure of the old spinster who takes charge of her invalid brother’s household. She finds a match, however, in the Scotch servant she hires, hard like herself, but with the undemonstrative kindness that seems to be a virtue of the race. The book lacks the charm that lies at the root of the popularity of the books of the “Kailyard” school. In its disagreeable way, however, it is consistent, though the melodramatic climax is not the ending one has a right to expect.—_The Mail and Express_, June 21, 1899. _Captain Jackman_ _By W. CLARK RUSSELL_ _240 pages, size 7½ × 5, cloth, 3 stampings, $1.00_ Clark Russell in “Captain Jackman” has told a good story of the strange conduct of a ship’s master, who starts out with a fake robbery by which he realizes £1500. The account of his peculiar courtship and the still more peculiar acceptance of his offer by the daughter of a retired naval commander is scarcely credible, but it is readable and the tragic end is not improbable. It is a mere short story, expanded by large type into a volume. —_San Francisco Chronicle_, July 9, 1899.